Horn Book Review
Emphasizing Seuss's lifelong passion for doodling and general playfulness, longtime Seuss publisher Klimo objectively highlights the author-illustrator's life-defining moments in this accessible easy-reader biography. Johnson and Fancher incorporate Seuss's original art into their soft-focus, nostalgic illustrations. This is a nice follow-up read to the illustrators' other, more childhoodfocused Seuss biography, The Boy on Fairfield Street. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
For children who can read And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street without help, an account of its creator's life and career. Klimo teams up with the illustrators of Kathleen Krull's The Boy on Fairfield Street (2004) to tell the same tale in (somewhat) simpler language. Opening with the news of his Pulitzer Prize win"Not bad for a lifelong doodler!"she follows "Ted" from birth on. It's a lightweight chronicle that includes his youth and early career as a cartoonist, his personal and public lives, his major picture-book successes and breakthrough easy readers, and his work as the publisher of the Beginner Books imprint. Johnson and Fancher incorporate actual Seussian artwork into their golden-toned paintings, including some commercial work but not, happily, the now-discomfiting racial caricatures he drew during World War II when, as the author diplomatically puts it, he "poked fun at Hitler and Japan." Along with views of the man himself at various ages, the illustrators include racially diverse groups of children and (something of a stretch) publishers raptly reading or listening. There is no bibliography, and the recent string of posthumous publications goes unmentioned. Still, newly independent readers will come away with a picture of the creative genius behind the Cat, the Grinch, and all that incomparable wordplay. Not essential but a handsome tribute. (Early reader/biography. 5-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, young Ted Geisel loved to doodle everywhere he went. He managed to parlay this artistic flair into an epic career in advertising, movie production, and, most notably, as beloved children's author Dr. Seuss. Readers will be entertained by stories of a young Seuss meeting President Theodore Roosevelt as a Boy Scout, of his challenges growing up as a German American during WWI, and the way he drew inspiration for a story from the engine noises on his first ocean-liner cruise. Geisel's refusal to give up and his willingness to keep drawing in spite of failures are laudable qualities, and his willingness to tackle big issues such as the environment and nuclear war make him exceptional among children's authors of the day. His personal triumphs and tragedies are narrated alongside some of the most formative historical events of the twentieth century, telling the story of the man behind some of the most recognizable children's literature of an entire generation.--Anderson, Erin Copyright 2016 Booklist
